Pride in YOUR Military!

pettyfog · May 14, 2008

I'm publishing pretty much this whole blog piece because there's no way to make the point without doing so:The blogger is assigned to a training base for Iraqi AF pilots:

Hussayn's Story

Hussayn was recovering from a cup of my extra-strength double espresso with a bottle of tamarind soda (if you’re curious, take a can of Doctah Peppah and add a couple of ounces of OJ, then sip, cautiously). He gave me a bit of perspective on what it’s like to have Crusader Myrmidons roaming your neighborhood.

“After Baghdad falls to the US, I am cashiered out of the Air Force and take a job in one of the markets in my neighborhood. One night, some of my friends are visiting, and we have a barbecue and are watching videos of cowboy movies. There is a knock on my door. I open it and there is a US patrol. They ask if they can enter my house and I say, 'Sure, come in.' I offer them some barbecue, because we see them on patrol; we recognize them and know how long they are out before they return to base. They say, 'No, thank you. We have eaten recently.'

"Then they ask if I have weapons. One of my friends says to me in Arabic, 'Tell them "No" because they will take your guns and you will be defenseless.' I tell him in Arabic, 'I will not lie to them or they will not trust us.'

"So I say, 'Yes, I have a submachinegun, an AK and a pistol.' The patrol leader says, 'Bring them, please. We need to see them.' So, I bring them out. The patrol leader examines them, the submachinegun, the AK and the pistol. He tells me, 'The lubricant you have been using is bad quality.' But I know he is really checking to see if they have been fired recently.

"Two of his men strip the weapons, clean them, give me new lubricant, show me how to use new lubricant, re-assemble the weapons and return them to me. They say, 'We must leave now – thank you for allowing us into your home.'

"They return every night, the same patrol, and ask if my family is well. I offer them food, tea, they say, 'Thank you,' and sometimes they stay for a bite to eat, or a cup of tea. I see them in the marketplace, we say 'Hello, how are you?' and ask about their families, too. They are friends with all the neighborhood.

"One day, everything changes. The patrols are all in Humvees and they travel fast. The soldiers all look at us with suspicion from the Humvees and we do not understand why. Then I hear of Wahabi in the neighborhood, but I do not report them to the patrols – I cannot, the Humvees travel fast and no one comes to my house any more. More and more, we hear shooting down the street, and one morning a bomb destroys the market where I work. I could get another job in another market, but that market might also be destroyed by a bomb. Only a few Wahabi are where I live, but there is no one to tell – no patrols, no police.

"So I come back to the Air Force. I come back because I want to get the Wahabi out of my neighborhood, get them out of Iraq.

"One month ago, the patrols are back, and they are walking, not in Humvees. Different soldiers from the soldiers in the first patrols, but behaving like them – very courteous, very watchful.

"When the patrol knocks on my door, I say, 'Please come in – I would like some lubricant for my pistol.' The patrol leader looks at me with a funny look, then he smiles, then they all come in and drink tea and I draw a map of where the Wahabi are..."
Click to expand...

This pretty much concurs with everything I read in the mil-blogs all the way along.

What happened to Hussayn's neighborhood and countless like his?

Starting with Fallujah and Al Sadr resulting in 'L Paul Bremer' running the show, and turned around by Petraeus' genius.

Not that he was a REAL genius... he just paid attention. It was working before we ever heard of him.

Some people want to see our troops cast in the roles defined by Haditha and Abu Ghraib*. But the vast majority; griping, bitching, and throwing out bigot slurs STILL performed as seen at the beginning and end.
- - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - -- - -- - - -
* Abu Ghraib: STILL, by far the most overblown description of a 'torture camp' ever written up in the annals of warfare.

HatterDon · May 14, 2008

nice to have you back, 'fog.

pettyfog · May 14, 2008

Thanks, Don.

From the Australian, Something you will never read in The Guardian:
Credit Where it's Due

I have to wait for Monday for my comment on that!

..erp..gulp...E-E-E-rPPP... GULP!

Forum	Title	Date
Miscellaneous	Military Futures: Next Admin	Jul 1, 2008
Miscellaneous	Harkin: McCain 'Too Military', 'scary'	May 17, 2008
Miscellaneous	Our Military & Morale	Nov 7, 2007
Miscellaneous	Informative: Military Channel	Aug 22, 2007
Miscellaneous	Forget the military, send in the 'Freudians'!	Sep 12, 2006

Pride in YOUR Military!

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